The Prayer of Restoration

[0:00] Thank you everyone for praying for me this week. I was at a pastor's conference. It was called a Kingdom Impact Conference. It was with a pastor's coach that I've been part of. He's been my coach for a number of years.

[0:19] And as it began Wednesday morning, he said, I would like to give you a definition of Kingdom Impact.

[0:32] And he said, to be honest, he said, I wrestled with this and I cannot give you a definition of Kingdom Impact. He said, Kingdom Impact is up to God to determine what Kingdom Impact is in your life.

[0:53] Think about that for a moment. We just went through the last three weeks of being a difference maker. Using our story to make a difference. Using our readiness to make a difference.

[1:05] And then using our invitation, the message of the gospel to make a difference in the lives of others. And sometimes we don't realize that we do not have to be a Billy Graham.

[1:23] We do not have to be an Amy Carmichael. We do not have to be anyone who has made a difference that the world knows about to make Kingdom Impact.

[1:35] Whatever you do in the power of God's Holy Spirit to make a difference in someone else's life is a Kingdom Impact.

[1:51] This entire week was not what I expected. I've been to his conferences before and it's about church systems. It's about doing what we need to do to reach the lost, to make a difference in our world.

[2:08] And using the local church. This whole week was about introspection. He started off, he said, talk about our testimony.

[2:18] He said, number one, you need to have a testimony. Now, he was speaking to a group of pastors. He said, number one, you need to make sure that you're in the Kingdom. He said, you need to make sure that you're part of the Kingdom of God.

[2:35] That you have been adopted into God's family. He said, there's such a thing as accidental birth.

[2:46] There's such a thing as unexpected births. He says, but there's no such thing as an accidental adoption. He said, you've got to have a testimony. You've got to have a story of your relationship and when you met Jesus Christ as your Savior.

[2:59] And he went on to have us write out our calling to the ministry. He said, I want you to look back to the day, to the time, to the moment when you sense God's calling upon your life.

[3:16] So we wrote out our calling when that was. He said, and when Satan tempts you to quit, when Satan tempts you to think that it's too difficult to go on, he said, I want you to go back to that calling that you sensed.

[3:34] And you tell Satan, I'm called to this ministry. He said, wherever you are. He goes on and on and on. And then it became very introspective.

[3:45] He came up with, I think, almost 20 different questions to ask ourselves. Is there anything in our life that would be keeping us from having the greatest kingdom impact possible?

[4:00] You know, is there anything in your life that if God asked you to give up? He said, I'm talking about material things. He said, if there's anything in your life that God asked you right now to give up, what would it be?

[4:15] Or would you be willing to give it up? If God told you to go somewhere, is there any place that you would tell God you wouldn't be willing to go?

[4:26] And on and on and on. Making sure that we were prepared to make a kingdom impact. But over and over again, it was about our integrity. It was about being who we're supposed to be.

[4:42] And it's amazing that I had already prepared this message before I left. But this morning is probably one of the most difficult messages that I've ever preached.

[4:55] Because it really reaches the heart of us as human beings. Do you believe God answers prayer? He does.

[5:08] Now, there are certain prayers that God has promised to answer. The first prayer is a prayer of salvation. Where you admit to God that you are a sinner.

[5:19] And you realize that Jesus died on the cross in your place. And you ask him into your life. And you're trusting him as your savior.

[5:30] God will answer that prayer. He says, All who call upon the name of the Lord, what? Shall be saved. But then, today I want to talk to you about what perhaps may be the most difficult prayer that you will ever pray.

[5:47] And it's a prayer that can absolutely turn your life around. We call it the restoration prayer. I hope you never have to pray that prayer.

[5:58] But I know we're all human beings. And I know that we all sin. You are that man.

[6:11] You are that man. Those are the words that rolled off the lips of Nathan the prophet as he went into King David's palace.

[6:26] Went into the palace of probably the most powerful man that ever lived in Israel. He was the king of Israel.

[6:38] And so he walks up to the king and says, King, I've got to tell you about a situation. He said there's a rich man that is so wealthy that he has everything that you could ever ask.

[6:52] He says he has so many cattle. He has so many sheep. He cannot even count. But he lives next to a man that is so poor.

[7:04] He doesn't have much. He only has one little sheep. As a matter of fact, That little sheep is so important to him that it's like family to him. And then one day the rich man had guests that came over.

[7:18] And rather than going to his field full of sheep, He goes to the poor man next door. And he takes by force that little sheep.

[7:29] And he slaughters it to feed his guests. Well, King David was outraged. He slammed his fist down. And he says, As surely as I live, This man deserves to die.

[7:44] And what does Nathan do next? That's when the prophet Nathan stood up and pointed at David and said these words that we see in 2 Samuel 12.

[7:55] Verse 7. He says, Then Satan said to David, You are that man. You are the man.

[8:07] Thus said the Lord God of Israel, I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. Wow. How did it get to this point?

[8:19] David, the man after God's own heart. He was the one. He was reigning over a united kingdom. And he was one who had brought peace to Israel.

[8:32] Yes, he was a man of war. But he was living the dream, if you will. And he was serving God. King Israel, David was king of Israel during Israel, what has been called Israel's golden age.

[8:47] God was blessing Israel. God was blessing David. David was incredibly wealthy. He had a large family. Everybody loved him. David had everything anyone could have ever wanted.

[9:01] Then one day, David put himself in a dangerous situation. The warriors of Israel had gone out to war. They'd gone out to battle. And instead of going out with his army, as he was used to, David stayed home.

[9:16] One day, he goes to the rooftop, probably to get some air. And as he was walking around the rooftop with nothing to do, there he was on his rooftop.

[9:28] And he looked down at the next rooftop. And there was a beautiful woman bathing. And he looked upon her and he lusted for her.

[9:40] He calls her over. And he commits adultery with her. And then he realizes that things won't turn out well.

[9:53] Her husband, Uriah, is out in the battle. Calls him back in. And he wants him to get some rest and some recreation. And hopefully that he would go into his wife.

[10:08] Because we know that she was with child. And he would go into his wife. And hopefully it would cover things up. Well, Uriah, being a good soldier and being a man of integrity, said, no, not while my men are out there, out in the field.

[10:23] And they're waging war. He says, no. So he slept outside. Well, that didn't work. So then David calls in one of his men.

[10:33] And he says, what I want you to do is I want you to put Uriah, the head of the battle. He said, I want you to put him in the worst place imaginable. Then I want you guys to pull back.

[10:45] We all know what David expected. So here's David. Committed adultery.

[10:57] Committed murder. So what does he do? Now, this morning I want us to realize that there are no such thing as small sins. We're going to talk about egregious sins this morning.

[11:10] We're going to talk about sinning outrageously. But sin is sin. No matter what it is, sin is sinful.

[11:23] Sinful hurts the heart of God. And it's that, if we would call it that little white lie, that sin of omission, whatever it is, sin caused Jesus to go to the cross and die for your sin and for mine.

[11:42] Every sin, big or small, is significant. And it has consequences. But I think you would agree with me. There are some sins that when we commit, they have outrageous consequences.

[11:58] They have consequences that not only affect our lives, but that affect the lives of those we love, that affects others publicly. There are sins like adultery, sin that ruins reputation, rips a spouse's heart out, and can destroy a family.

[12:15] Adultery is a sin that has huge consequences. Stealing, theft, embezzlement, lying, dishonesty. You know that when you're found out, it leads to public humiliation.

[12:28] The loss of a career can even lead to prison. Those are all things that have tremendous and outrageous consequences. Drugs, alcohol, it can become an addiction.

[12:41] It can take over your life. It can ruin your health. It can ruin a career. It can ruin your family. It can ruin your future. And you can lose the people who mean the most to you.

[12:53] Now, I could go on listing all kinds of big sins. I could go on listing the whole list. The thing is, very often, we think that we won't get caught.

[13:08] You know, I can do this in secret, and I won't get caught. No one will find out. I'm sure David thought that. I'm sure David thought that he could cover up.

[13:21] But what happens when, like the famous preacher, English pastor Charles Spurton put it, what happens when you've sinned gloriously, not just a little sin, but you've rebelled against God, and you've sinned in a major way, and it feels impossible to bounce back, and it doesn't feel like you can ever come back from it.

[13:45] What happens when you sin, an egregious, outrageous, a horrible, a terrible thing, and there are ultimate consequences.

[13:55] So if you have your notes this morning, you can take those out this morning, and here's what you can fill in in your notes. Here's the first thing. When you and I sin outrageously, when you and I sin egregiously, and even when we sin what someone might even think is a small sin, there are spiritual consequences when you and I sin.

[14:21] Now, let me be clear. When you and I sin egregiously, outrageously, God doesn't take away your salvation. If you've trusted Christ as your Savior, we are secure in the body of Christ because it was not our works, it was not our sinlessness that got us right with God.

[14:40] So therefore, our sin cannot get us out of our relationship with God, but it will affect our fellowship with Him. So it will have spiritual consequences.

[14:51] David did commit murder. He did commit adultery. He did a lot of big ones right there, but he didn't lose his salvation. God continued to call him a man after his own heart.

[15:03] God didn't give up on him. Now, when we pray that eternal prayer, the prayer of salvation, knowing we're a sinner, trusting Jesus as our Savior, He will save us.

[15:15] He will adopt us into His family. He will regenerate us. We're redeemed. We're bought with a price. All of these things take place. You belong to God forever.

[15:27] Remember, we don't have to do anything to earn our salvation. But when we sin, even though we don't lose our salvation, it does affect our relationship with God.

[15:41] In Isaiah 59, look at these strong words. But your iniquities have separated you from your God. He's saying this, Isaiah is saying this to God's people.

[15:52] And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He will not hear. Have you ever prayed, and it almost seems like your prayers didn't get beyond the ceiling?

[16:07] God doesn't hear. Things aren't going right in your life. You're feeling empty. Then that is probably the time to look in your life and say, God, is there anything that I've done?

[16:19] Is there any sin that I've committed that has broken that fellowship between you and between me? But that's not all. Not only does it affect our spiritual relationship, there are physical, there are financial, there are relational, and there are emotional consequences when you and I sin outrageously.

[16:52] Now understand this. This is really big. God created the world so that there would be natural consequences. If you stand on your roof, we had our backdoor neighbor that was repairing their roof two years after the hurricane, the big two-story house behind Megan and Nathan.

[17:16] It's actually behind their house. If, let's say, one of those roofers thought, you know what? I want the quick way to the ground, and I'm just going to walk, and I'm going to float to the ground.

[17:29] How would that have worked for them? See, God put into the natural order natural consequences. There are certain things that you cannot do and expect there not to be a consequence.

[17:43] Now, if one of them decided, I'm going to step off the roof, God wouldn't necessarily be punishing them for stepping off the roof. It's just a natural consequence God placed that was going to happen because of a decision, because of a choice they made.

[17:59] When you and I don't live according to God's plan, when we don't listen to Him, there are natural consequences that just take place.

[18:09] It's not that He's intentionally always throwing consequences upon you. There's natural consequences that are going to come into your life when you don't do things according to His will.

[18:22] We could call it the law of sowing and reaping. Reaping. No, you reap what you sow. Look at Galatians 6, verses 7 and 8, and it lays this principle out.

[18:35] Paul says, Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.

[18:56] It says, It's very clear. Whoever sows to the flesh from the flesh will reap destruction. Whoever sows to the Spirit from the Spirit will reap eternal or everlasting life.

[19:10] So when you sow fraud, you reap bankruptcy, possibly even jail. When you sow pornography, you reap messed up relationships. When you sow lying, you reap shame and maybe broken relationships there.

[19:29] All of these things. When you sow drugs and alcohol, you reap addiction and all the health consequences that go along with that. So I think you get the picture.

[19:40] We reap what we sow. It's a natural consequence of our actions. But even though there are consequences, I want you to hear this.

[19:51] There are no dead ends with God. There are no dead ends with God. It doesn't matter what you've done. It doesn't matter how far you've gone.

[20:04] It does not matter how horrible, how terrible, how egregious, how outrageous you sin. There's no dead end with God. Because God is like the father, the prodigal son.

[20:21] That says, I'm ready. I'm waiting on you. I'm just waiting on you to come back to me. And I will welcome you back with open arms. Because this next thing that we learn, God provides a way for radical forgiveness.

[20:38] You've heard of a radical surgery? I mean, it's something that just gets rid of it all. Yes, it's involved. Yes, it might hurt.

[20:50] But it's radical. It takes care of it completely. God provides a way for radical forgiveness. Look at Acts chapter 3, verses 19 and 20.

[21:02] Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before.

[21:14] This is what was being preached to those in Israel, for them to come back to him. But for those of us who know Jesus Christ, we know that we have already been made right with him, and it's just a matter of confessing our sin.

[21:30] Let's go back to David. Before we do that, in other religions, what is the way to God in other religions? If they think they've messed up, you've got to earn your way back to their deity, whoever that is.

[21:46] Make up for what you did that was wrong, and even back the scales. But that's not what Christianity says, though.

[21:57] Christianity is that you can be made right with God right now, restored to a right relationship with God, and to a future that has hope by, number one, trusting him for salvation.

[22:09] But once we are part of God's family, it's just simply coming back to him and admitting. Let today be a day that God can restore hope in your life.

[22:22] Now, I realize that no one may need this message this morning, and I hope there's not a day in your future when you need to pray a prayer as big as this prayer that David prayed.

[22:37] But guess what? Every time you and I sin against God, we hurt the heart of God. And as we're going to look at this prayer of David in Psalm 51 in just a few moments, I have prayed this prayer more often than I would like to admit.

[22:57] There are times when I've hurt people. There are times when I've said things. There are times when, you know, probably shouldn't have done, and you can say the same.

[23:09] Let today be a day that gives us hope and a new direction. Psalm 51, verses 1 through 12. Let's read this together.

[23:20] This is where we're going to unpack a little bit about David's prayer of restoration. After Nathan pointed the finger at David and said, you are the man, David could have tried to lay blame elsewhere.

[23:39] Well, she shouldn't have been on the roof. David could have laid blame at whatever was going on, the circumstances, anyone else but himself.

[23:51] But what did David do? David turned to God and repented of his sin. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies.

[24:06] Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge. Notice that. He says, I acknowledge my transgression.

[24:18] I admit my sin. And my sin is always before me. What David is saying was, he said he was feeling guilty the entire time.

[24:29] Can't fool God. He said, my sin is always before me. Against you, you only have I sinned, verse 4. And done this evil in your sight that you may be found just when you speak.

[24:43] God was right when he spoke about sin being horrible and terrible and wrong. He said, God, you're right. And he said, you're blameless when you judge. You always judge correctly. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.

[24:59] David said, I realized I was born a sinner. I realized I inherited a sinful nature. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts.

[25:11] And in the hidden part, you will make me to know wisdom. Just like this week, we were encouraged to think introspectively, to think about where are we with God?

[25:23] We who expect to be leading others. What's right or what's wrong in our own hearts? So introspectively, in the hidden part, you will make me to know wisdom.

[25:36] Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones you have broken may rejoice.

[25:46] Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

[25:58] Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me by your generous spirit.

[26:12] So how do you and I experience that restoration in our own lives? Well, let's look at that right now. To experience the power of this restoration prayer that Jesus prayed.

[26:25] Let's look at parts of this restoration process. So the first step to experience this, how do we experience the power of the restoration prayer that David prayed?

[26:36] Search me, O God. Try me. He says, cleanse my heart, O God. So how do we do this? First of all, we need to return to God in humility. Stop running.

[26:47] Stop hiding. And just come back to God in humility. Now this may be the most difficult part of the restoration prayer. There have been times in my life when I have sinned and I have felt guilty and I have just not thought about it.

[27:04] Tried to push it under the rug. But we need to come back to God and admit it and allow Him to take care of that.

[27:15] So this may be the most difficult part for some people or a difficult part for some people is just come back to God and admit that we were wrong all along. What did David say? I was guilty.

[27:26] I knew I did wrong. But David had fooled himself for so long that it took Nathan the prophet reminding him that he in fact was the one who was guilty and realizing that God was right all along.

[27:45] See, David began his restoration prayer by returning to God in humility. Let's go back to Psalm 51. How did he begin that in verse number one? He said, have mercy upon thee, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.

[28:03] And then verse number five, he says, behold, I was brought forth in iniquity. I was born a sinner. And in sin did my mother conceive me? You know, at some point in our life, you know, you and I have messed up big time.

[28:20] Just admit that we sin. Just admit it. Admit that God's right. Admit that we're wrong. Sometimes we hesitate to return to God. Sometimes it may take a little while.

[28:32] And what happens, sometimes we will give up on our Bible reading. Sometimes people will give up on their church attendance. Sometimes you can tell someone may stop giving, someone may stop attending, and chances are there's something going on in their life that they have not confessed before God, and they're feeling guilty.

[28:50] And maybe they're hesitating, coming back to God in humility. So it takes that. You know, Satan will tell us sometimes, you know, you messed up too big.

[29:02] You messed up too big for God to take you back. And you know what? I don't think they'll take you back. I don't think your family, I don't think you're whatever. You know what? They'll never forgive you. And we just begin to wallow, and we circle the drain.

[29:17] And Satan would love to keep us there. But God wants us to come back and just admit it. Just like a child, one of your children, your grandchildren, when they sin, when they mess up, when they lie, or they break something, they won't admit it.

[29:31] What do you want? You just want them to admit it. Just tell me. And I think our children who are adults now, remember there were times when they came and admitted something, and they got away.

[29:49] without too bad of a consequence. Why? Because they came right away and admitted it. You know what? That might have been their punishment enough to come and tell mom, come and tell dad, and fess up.

[30:04] And so we need to return to God in humility. Don't believe Satan's lies. Let's look at 1 Peter 5, 6.

[30:16] Peter says, Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. Humble ourselves before his presence in that he may exalt you in due time.

[30:28] I have known others. I have counseled those that have sinned in such a way that destroyed their family. I've known other pastors.

[30:41] I've gone to school with others. I've known others who have sinned egregiously and have basically lost their testimony, lost their ministry, but went to counseling, got restored, and are back in ministry because they humble themselves before God, and they humble themselves, and we're going to see in a moment before those that they have hurt.

[31:09] Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. So the first step to experiencing the power of the restoration prayer is to return to God in humility.

[31:20] The next thing, and we've already alluded to this, is confess our sin, just as David did. Confess our sin. Acknowledge it. Agree with God that we are wrong. Now, that's a hard word for some of us to say I was wrong.

[31:35] Some people can't even say that word. Some people won't admit to you that they were wrong. They will do something to try to make up for it, but they won't admit that they're wrong.

[31:46] God says, no, you've got to admit it. You've got to confess it. You've got to agree with me that you sinned. Nobody else, it wasn't anybody else's fault. It was your fault. Let's look back at David's prayer going back to Psalm 51, verse number three.

[32:00] He says, For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me against you. You only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight.

[32:14] Look at Psalm 51, three through four, or three and four, that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge.

[32:24] Psalm 51, nine, Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. If you want to be restored into right fellowship with God, admit your sin and thank him for your forgiveness that Jesus accomplished on the cross of Calvary.

[32:44] See, we need to stop justifying. We need to stop pointing fingers. We need to stop laying blame elsewhere. We did it. Own our sin and trust God to forgive you. You know, when you do that, God has a promise.

[32:56] First John one, nine. He says, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and he is just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

[33:09] When we confess, we're forgiven. But very often, there may still be consequences. Remember those natural consequences I talked about? Those consequences that are just there?

[33:22] Part of the natural order? You see, God won't always make everything hunky-dory when you and I confess and he forgives and he restores.

[33:34] We very often will still have the blowback. We may still have those consequences to live through and that's where we will need God's help to get through that.

[33:48] God won't always fix all the consequences in our life. Now, he may be able to restore us eventually back to where we were before and sometimes with way more integrity than we once had because we've learned.

[34:08] We've learned our lesson. That's why we have this next step. When we sin, when we confess, God forgives, but we may still have consequences, here is where we need to repair relationships with those we hurt.

[34:27] Repair the relationships with those you've hurt as much as possible. Now, I say as much as possible. You know, I'm not going to lie.

[34:38] This is not the easy part to go to people and say, you know, I sinned against you. I hurt you. I was wrong. This was terrible.

[34:50] Will you forgive me? I will do everything within my power to make it right. And I want you to hold me accountable. That's where we work to repair relationships with those we hurt.

[35:05] See, being restored after a fall isn't easy. We've sinned maybe grievously, egregiously. There's going to be a lot of damage that's done very often. And so our responsibility is to do everything within our power to make it right.

[35:19] In Romans chapter 12 verse 8 it says this. If it is possible as much as depends on you live peaceably with all men live peaceably with everyone meaning all we can do is we can go to someone and admit that we've sinned admit that we've hurt them admit that we've done something terrible.

[35:42] And then it's up to them. They may choose to forgive us they may not. They may forgive us but they may not trust us and with good reason. And so then we have to work on repairing that relationship.

[35:56] You do everything you can to make it right. Admit your sin to that person admit that you've hurt them. but often people people won't accept it.

[36:11] We have to be okay with that. You have to be okay with God forgiving you and making sure that you're right with God and then it's up to others what they choose to do with that.

[36:23] You can restore your relationship with God but it's not always that way with people. But God says at least take that responsibility. At least own up to it and do your part.

[36:34] When you sin outrageously when you really really mess up. See we cannot make it through this restoration prayer without this next step and here it is. you've got to be willing and able to receive the strength from God to face the consequences of your sin because there will be consequences.

[36:52] You've got to accept that and receive the strength from God. This may be also one of the most difficult parts is getting through that restoration process but God's always there for you.

[37:12] I want you to look at this next verse. What did David realize when he was going through those consequences when he was living through those? He said God is our refuge a very present help in trouble.

[37:29] You know what that means when the blowback is still coming at you? God will always be there for you. Even when you don't have any friends left God will still be there with you.

[37:39] You can take refuge in God. He'll be your shelter when you're overwhelmed. He will be the one that will take care of you when you are in trouble. He will be there to help you get through the consequences.

[37:57] See without God we can't do anything pleasing in His sight without His Holy Spirit's strength and power. When you sin against Him He still loves you. He wants you to admit it accept His forgiveness and then receive His help as He helps you go through it.

[38:15] And then here's the final step. It's an important step. Reprioritize. Reprioritize our relationship.

[38:27] Reprioritize your relationship with God and maintain your integrity moving forward. See what happened in the past is in the past. You can't go back and undo it.

[38:38] You know there are no redos. There are no mulligans in life. You cannot go back and redo it. I want a do over. Eh, can't be done in life. But we can reprioritize and we can begin working on and maintaining our integrity from this point forward.

[38:57] What leads a follower of Jesus to sin egregiously? I can almost guarantee you it didn't happen overnight. See we begin to allow God to, we move further away from God.

[39:13] We may neglect reading His Word. We may neglect gathering together with the body of Christ. We may stop getting together with the body of Christ.

[39:28] We may stop taking part in all the spiritual disciplines. You know people will say, well you know what, I used to read my Bible every day.

[39:40] I used to go to church every week but now you know not so much and then sin begins to creep in and before you know it God takes a back seat in their life and they sin as Burton said they sin gloriously.

[40:00] Just like David it didn't happen overnight. Step by step by step David moved away from God and the priority God had in his life and David sinned outrageously.

[40:14] You see, you remove God from the center of your life. You can no longer hear His voice. You can no longer sense that closer relationship. You can't feel His power and because of that we make a wrong decision.

[40:25] We make a wrong choice. We make a dumb decision and that's what happened to David. David said Psalm 51 10-12 Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

[40:39] Do not cast me away from your presence. Do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore me to the joy of your salvation. See, David didn't just pray to be restored.

[40:53] David said God, I can't allow this to happen again. I want to build these safeguards into my life. Create a clean heart within me. Take away this dirty heart from me.

[41:05] Get rid of it. Give me a clean heart. God, renew a loyal spirit within me. A spirit that is devoted to you. How can we get back?

[41:18] Commit to reading God's word every day. Commit to spending time with him. Communing with him in prayer. Meeting regularly. Don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together.

[41:29] Stay in church. Stay worshiping. Continue worshiping God with others. And then share your faith. serve others. Get involved in the life of the church.

[41:44] This prayer also begins a long-term restoration in your life. God will begin to make you stronger. And there's a prayer of restoration that there's nothing magical about it, but I'm going to have us pray in just a moment.

[42:02] As we wind down today's message, just as this past week, we introspectively thought about our own lives, our own calling, anything that's keeping us from being as impactful as possible, and making things right if there is something.

[42:27] This morning, I want this to be the time where if there is anything in our life, it could be a crossword you had with your spouse this morning on the way here.

[42:43] It could have been maybe a bitterness that you have in your heart towards someone else. It could be unforgiveness. It could be a sin that, as Paul said in the church of Corinth, that shouldn't even be named.

[43:06] If there is that in your life this morning, I want this to be a day of restoration. I want this to be a day of revival. And I want to give us an opportunity after we pray this prayer this morning, for anyone who wants to come up and spend time before God, no judgment.

[43:28] I mean, it could be the worst horrible sin that you could have ever committed. It could also just be that maybe you had a cross word with your spouse this morning.

[43:41] It could just be something that you thought of that wasn't quite right. Let this be a time when we come to God and we say, God, as David prayed, create within me a clean heart, oh God, purify me this morning, and I want to start afresh.

[43:55] I want to start over. I want to start new. I want to start new. He says, verse 12, uphold me by your generous spirit.

[44:06] I want to all stand this morning. Here is what we could pray as a prayer of restoration this morning.

[44:22] Pray, dear God, God, I really messed up. I do, I don't make any excuses. I rebelled against you and I sinned.

[44:34] I am sorry. I believe you are a loving God and I ask you to forgive me this sin and restore my relationship with you. Create in me a clean heart and make me willing to obey you so I don't do this again.

[44:51] Please walk with me. Give me the strength to endure the consequences of my sin and repair over time what I have broken. I want to live for you and be closer to you.

[45:03] I pray this in Jesus' name. As our worship team comes this morning, I know we have an exciting, uplifting song to end on, but we'll do this after, I believe, this other song that they have prepared for us this morning.

[45:22] This morning, as our worship team plays, every head bowed, every eye closed, you don't need to be looking around you.

[45:40] If there is anything in your life this morning that God's Holy Spirit is convicting you of, I know this morning we went long.

[45:55] But that's okay, I believe this is one of the most important messages that I preached in some time. We need to be right with God. If there's anything in your life this morning that may be keeping you from having the greatest kingdom impact, God's heart, we need to be moving about this world with a clean heart, confess sin, knowing that we're right with him, living a life above reproach, living a life that no one could come and say, hey, I know you're guilty of that, and then be right.

[46:34] Now, people sometimes make things up, but God knows. This morning, let's get things right with God, whatever that is.

[47:03] Dear Father, my prayer this morning, if there's anyone in this building that has sinned previously, I pray, dear Lord God, that the convicting work of your Holy Spirit, to draw them to you, to humble themselves before you this morning, to confess before you their sin.

[47:32] Lord, I pray that if there's anyone that they need to go to to make things right, to restore relationships, restore consequences, I pray, Lord God, that you would begin to work in our midst.

[47:47] Unify us in spirit, purpose, our mission, but also, Father, unify us in our relationships as well. Father, I pray that you'd help us to have a kingdom impact, making a difference in other people's lives, for you, for your honor, for your glory.

[48:20] Father, when we stand before you one day, may we be able to hear well done, good, and faithful servant. Father, we thank you for what you're going to do.

[48:35] We thank you for your forgiveness, made possible through the death and the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Have your will, have your way with us today, we pray in Jesus' name.

[48:56] Amen. Everybody said amen. You may sit down. Our ushers come this morning. I realize this has been a heavy message today.

[49:12] Because businesses are in Jesus' name. So we hear Christians say if we hear us they do you hear they can have left up to